1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to speech recognition systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to interactive voice response systems that can access a database to obtain complex information to reduce the amount of incoming voice-transmitted data needed to complete a transaction.
2. Related Technology
Speech recognition technologies have been used for years in interactive voice response (IVR) systems that permit customers or other users to access information or initiate transactions over the telephone. In this manner, telephone users can navigate through a series of menu selections or can provide data without talking to a human telephone operator or customer service representative. This reduces the cost of transactions and services, thereby providing benefit to the customers as well as the operators of the IVR systems.
One problem with IVR systems is that they must be programmed to interpret certain types of data. It is known in the art of voice recognition systems that it is easier and more reliable to interpret incoming voice data when the content of the voice data is expected to consist of a finite or relatively small set of words as opposed to being open-ended. For example, it is significantly easier to interpret an incoming voice command that is expected to consist only of numbers or of states of the United States compared to voice data that might consist of names or, particularly of street addresses. Thus, it is difficult for IVR systems to reliably receive incoming address or contact information when such information includes street addresses.
Consequently, when street addresses or other similarly complex or open-ended information is to be gathered, the conventional solution has been to use human telephone operators or online web interfaces. However, paying a human operator is expensive and online web interfaces are not readily accessible to many people.
A partial remedy to the problem has been to first establish an account using a human operator or an online web interface. An IVR system can then access information about the known user through the user's account number. While such a system can provide accurate complex data for a known user, the system still requires human operators or an online web interface to establish the account.
Another problem with existing IVR systems is the expense that is incurred to customize the IVR for particular information. Existing IVR systems are configured to receive particular types of information. Purchasers of these systems must either limit the information that they can collect and use or they must pay to have the system configured to interpret the specific data that they need. If after configuring the system the purchaser decides to collect a different type of data, the purchaser will incur significant expenses to update the speech recognition software.
Therefore, what is needed is an IVR system that can reliably obtain complex information and that can be more easily customized to obtain different types of information.